Ministry of Agriculture: Strengthening direct producer sales in focus

By: STA Date: 2024. 11. 25. 11:00

Sustainability is a key issue in all areas of our lives these days. From an economic and social perspective, the development of food supply chains that, in addition to strengthening the local economy and rural communities, offer reliable, quality food directly to consumers with as few intermediaries as possible, contributes significantly to this. This is the aim of the call for applications entitled Development of Short Supply Chains (SSC), which is being implemented with European Union co-financing, and in relation to which the Ministry of Agriculture is waiting for opinions until November 30, 2024 – the Ministry of Agriculture drew attention in a statement sent to MTI on Friday.

(Photo: Pixabay)

They explained that by creating close geographical and social links between producers, processors and consumers, the support of REL cooperation encourages the development of cooperation aimed at ensuring a fair livelihood for producers and access to high-quality, domestically sourced food for consumers.

An important aspect is that local production and sales strengthen the local economy, create and preserve local jobs, and develop local tourism

It is also important that production systems are more sustainable in small farms and transport routes are significantly shortened. REL contributes to the preservation of local knowledge and traditions, strengthening trust between producers and consumers. With the support, those participating in REL cooperation can develop sales forms based on a common project plan, which facilitates producers’ access to a common and direct market, as there is an increasing demand in Hungary for food purchased directly from producers or at most from an intermediary – they wrote. It was explained: a support application can be submitted by an individual entrepreneur, social cooperative, church or local government-run institution that qualifies as an agricultural producer, a catering enterprise, an enterprise active in public catering or market organization, exclusively in the form of a consortium in which the members are independent of each other.

The amount of non-refundable support that can be obtained can be a maximum of 70 million forints for consortia with at least four members

After the preparation of the call for applications titled Development of Short Supply Chains, implemented within the framework of the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of Hungary, with extensive professional consultation, all interested parties can now express their opinion on the call, which can be found among the materials to be socialized on the CAP-thematic page of the Ministry of Agriculture, at kap.gov.hu - the Ministry of Agriculture drew attention.

MTI